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In Salinger’s corner of the world, stories to tell, stories to keep

J. D. Salinger’s former home in Cornish, N.H., on land once owned by Augustus Saint-Gaudens.AP PhotoS/Jim Cole/file

CORNISH, N.H. — "Walk your horses or pay two dollars fine," reads a sign above the massive 449-foot wooden Cornish-Windsor covered bridge.

Built in 1866, the span connects two towns, the states of New Hampshire and Vermont, and locals with a symbol of the area's rich history. It's a sign one notable resident passed regularly: around these parts, he was known as "Jerry." The rest of the world knew him as J. D. Salinger.

Salinger (1919-2010) spent the last half of his life here and in Windsor, Vt., and, for visitors to these historic towns, it's easy to see why. While travelers may not wish to hide here for as long as the famously reclusive author did, the rural New England towns nestled along the Connecticut River make for a perfect weekend escape.

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Though just a few miles from Interstate 91, Cornish and Windsor, both of which are older than the nation, seem removed from contemporary times. More than 150 years after the covered bridge was built, its sign still seems relevant — commanding passersby to heed to the area's slower pace of life. Known as the birthplace of Vermont, Windsor's historic downtown is picture-perfect New England, with its stately brick Post Office, a white church that has hosted congregations since the 1760s, and a war memorial that commemorates Windsor's soldiers, starting with those who fought in the American Revolution.

This January marks the fifth anniversary of Salinger's death at 91. The writer's legacy in the area, though, is just one small part of Windsor and Cornish's storied history. The Old Constitution House, a tavern where the constitution of the Vermont Republic was signed — declaring independence from both Great Britain by of all the Colonies of States in North America — has been well-restored with period decor that offers a glimpse of Colonial life. Windsor's American Precision Museum, which was previously the site of the Robbins and Lawrence Armory and Machine Shop, brings to life the town's 19th-century days as a manufacturing hub of New England. Cutting-edge technology at the armory built some of the first interchangeable parts, helping to usher in the era of mass production and industrialization. Today, the museum's artifacts include early prototypes of the typewriter and the sewing machine, and an exhibit on the 1.5 million rifles mass-produced for the Union Army.

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Across from the museum on Main Street is the rustic Windsor Diner, built in a train's dining car, where Salinger often ate lunch, alone. A native New Yorker, starting in the mid 1950s Salinger lived in Cornish. But he spent much of his time, at least the time outside his home, in Vermont. He frequently crossed the state line, car tires rumbling over the creaky wooden Cornish-Windsor bridge. There he picked up his mail, was a regular at weekly church suppers in nearby Hartland, and occasionally met with Windsor High School students at a local soda fountain. In fact, one of his final interviews on record, some 55 years before his death, was landed by none other than a Windsor High student.

What was it that kept Salinger here for more than half a century, a world away and yet less than 250 miles from his boyhood home? Seclusion. Throughout his life, obsessive fans of "Catcher in the Rye," his controversial 1951 novel, harassed Salinger. "Nobody conspired to keep his privacy, but everyone kept his privacy — otherwise he wouldn't have stayed here all these years," Windsor resident Sherry Boudro told the New York Times in 2010. The wooded hills of Cornish and Windsor, and the New England reticence of his neighbors, provided cover.

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Certainly, the picturesque countryside provided privacy, but also inspiration. In "Catcher," his famous protagonist Holden Caufield tells a girl it was beautiful "as hell" up north. "What we could do is; tomorrow morning we could drive up to Massachusetts and Vermont, and all around there, see."

There's much to see. Salinger's home in Cornish — built in 1939 off a remote road and currently up for sale for $589,000 — features, according to the listing, a dramatic view of Windsor's Mount Ascutney. A steep and rugged 3,000-foot mountain, Ascutney, home to a ski resort until recent years, remains a destination for hikers and mountain bikers. Photographers flock to its waterfalls, and hang-gliders to its many overlooks. Jumping off one of Ascutney's granite slabs provides a stunning view of the lush Connecticut River Valley, divided into rolling trapezoids of farmland and framed by the White Mountains to the north.

Salinger wasn't the first artist to fall under the spell of the area. Augustus Saint-Gaudens, an American sculptor whose works grace Central Park and Boston Common, established the Cornish Colony as an artists' retreat. The colony lives on today as a national historic site open to visitors wishing to see Saint-Gaudens's artwork, his home and work studio, and the elaborate gardens and statues that surround them. Tours are offered daily except in winter.

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In these frigid New England winters, ice-fishermen gather on Windsor's Runnemade Lake, just a stone's throw from downtown. When the season thaws, nearby Mill Pond is a popular swimming hole with its shoreline of pines. Amtrak's Vermonter train rumbles through daily, carrying passengers from as far south as Washington, or north from St. Albans, near the Canadian border.

The Vermonter, along with frequent freight trains, rattles the silverware at the local watering hole, The Windsor Station Restaurant and Barroom, a cozy gem known for its "Depot Burger." Locals grab a morning coffee at Boston Dreams, which is part cafe and part shrine to New England's beloved Red Sox. One hero displayed prominently in the coffee shop is Carlton Fisk, who grew up in nearby Charlestown, N.H., and worked construction as a teenager, helping to pour the foundation of a home Salinger built in Cornish in the 1960s.

The Windsor Diner where J. D. Salinger would dine.CHERYL SENTER FOR THE BOSTON GLOBE/FILE/2010/STR

That was where Salinger reportedly spent hours on end in his writing quarters. He sternly instructed his wife (he had three) and children (he had two, with Claire Douglas) that he was not to be disturbed unless circumstances were dire — like maybe the house was burning down. Which it once nearly did: His home erupted in flames in 1992, sending volunteer firefighters from Cornish and Windsor and other towns scrambling to extinguish it. Salinger sent a handwritten thank you note to the responding departments for saving the house and who knows how many manuscripts.

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Salinger's last published work ran in the New Yorker in 1965. Several reports speculate that a few of those unseen manuscripts will be published in 2015. Until then, what Salinger was working on during his Cornish days will remain, like so many other things about the man, a mystery. But Windsor and Cornish have their own stories to tell.


Keith W. Chapman can be reached at keith.w.chapman@gmail.com.